USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Westborough > The history of Westborough, Massachusetts. Part I. The early history. By Heman Packard De Forest. Part II. The later history. By Edward Craig Bates > Part 16
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It was in the first years of the new century that both the church and the town were greatly disturbed by a conflict which was peculiar to the time when ministers were settled for life, and owned their freehold. Mr. John Robinson had been installed in 1789, as we have seen, with great cere- mony. Thereafter very little is recorded of him until the outbreak of great dissatisfaction in 1806. He lacked both the wisdom and the spirit of his honored predecessor, and proved at last the worst investment the town had ever made. The origin of the difficulty lay in his very outspoken utter- ances on political subjects when party spirit was running high. After the Revolution there came to be a good deal of difference of opinion as to the basis of popular gov- ernment. There were those who felt the necessity of a
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
strongly centralized government, with abundant power to enforce order; while, on the other hand, a large portion of the people, having had the taste of a broader liberty, were inclined to emphasize State rights and more popular rule. Washington, Adams, and Hamilton represented the former, and their party came to wear the name of "Federalists ;" while the opposing party, of whom the most prominent representative was Jefferson, was called, first Republican, and afterward Democratic. The period was one of much political turmoil. The French Revolution began in the year 1789, and its influence was felt far and wide. In 1801 Jefferson was chosen President, and the Democrats became the party in power. Four years later, when he was re- turned for a second term, there was naturally a good deal of excitement. It was in this year, at a town meeting or a popular gathering on the Fourth of July, that parson Rob- inson destroyed his influence over the good people of West- borough. In a strong speech, not marked for self-restraint, he advocated stiff Federalist opinions, and paid his respects to the Democrats in language unmistakable, calling them, among other things, " knights of the halter." The major- ity were probably his political opponents, and the others saw that he had gone too far. There followed a sharp de- bate pro and con ; but the deed was done, and the parson's fate was settled. They did not move with rapidity in those days, especially against a minister of the Gospel; but in December, 1806, a petition, signed by twenty-nine men, was presented in town-meeting, looking toward his dismis- sion. The town forthwith appointed a committee to wait on him and ascertain on what terms he would agree to leave; for in those days the people were accustomed to put themselves under contract to keep and support their minister until he died, and they could only get rid of him
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thereafter by his own consent. But in this instance the minister fell somewhat unwarily into the trap by promptly naming his terms, which were as promptly accepted; and as a venerable citizen, who remembered the excitement in his youthful days, once said to me, "he was forthwith made to sign his own warrant for dismission." He was to be regularly dismissed by council in nine months; he was to retain his " settlement money," which was £200; and he was to receive his salary to the end of his time of service. The town indorsed the action of the committee in accept- ing his terms, and then, at a meeting held Jan. 8, 1807, asked the church, which had as yet taken no action, to concur. After a good deal of delay it did so in the follow- ing September, and the town hastened to support its ac- tion by a very large majority. The dismissing council was appointed for the Ist of October following, and advised the confirmation of the action already taken. On the same day the church gave a formal letter of dismission to Mr. Robinson and his wife, which was signed " John Robinson, pastor, in the name and by a vote of the brethren; " and the pastor formally "signified his acquiescence with the Church and Town in his dismission from the work of the Gospel Ministry in this place." At half-past eleven in the morning the church, having transacted this business, adjourned till one o'clock in the afternoon. The council was still in session when they reassembled, but in due time came in with its report, as thus chronicled in the records : --
At half past three o'clock P. M. October the first, One Thou- sand Eight Hundred and seven, the Council went into the Meet- ing House, where the result of the Council was read, and the Moderator of the Council called upon the Church to know if they accepted the result of the Council, which passed in the
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affirmative. He then asked the pastor if he acquiesced, which he signified that he did.
Attest : JOHN ROBINSON, Pastor.
So ended the first act in the Robinson drama, and the people breathed freely, not knowing the sequel.
No very long time intervened between the dismission of Mr. Robinson and the settlement of the Rev. Elisha Rockwood, whose memory remains in honor to this day, and whose pastorate was the last which was con- nected with the official action of the town. He was called in May, 1808. The town, having concurred with the church in extending the call, appointed a committee to see what "encouragement" it would be proper for the town to give him. They offered him, for the first year, $1,000, and for his annual salary thereafter $600. And then, with painful remembrance of the recent troubles, they tried to provide against their recurrence by inserting a proviso in the call that he "shall take up his connection with this people whenever two thirds of the voters shall request it, and have the right to leave the people when he chooses, on condition of refunding to the town $400," the amount of "settlement money," twelve months' notice being required in either case. But in July this action was wisely revoked, and the settlement made without limita- tion. In September he sent a favorable reply, and prepa- rations began for the ordination, which, as before, was to be " an high day." It was to be on the 26th of October ; and the town appointed a committee " to preserve order and to secure the meeting house" against damage. In addition to the features of previous occasions, a band of music was engaged, which preceded the procession from the hotel to the church, opening ranks on arrival at the church for the passage of the dignitaries.
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The pastorate of Mr. Rockwood, though eminently suc- cessful, was destined to have serious disturbances. The first came in the shape of a sequel to the Robinson episode. This crabbed member of the church militant, angry that another should have his place, tried to wreak a petty and puerile vengeance on the young pastor. In 1814 the matter became so serious that Deacon Chamber- lain presented charges before the church, calling for an ecclesiastical trial of the former pastor. The record is as follows : -
1814, Aug. 10.
After lecture the church was stayed to hear a communication, of which the following is a copy : -
" WESTBORO', August 8th, 1814. " To the Chh. of Christ in Westborough.
" It is with deep regret that the conduct of Mr. John Robin- son, once Pastor of the Chh. of Christ in Westborough, hath been such as to constrain the Subscriber to state to you the following misdemeanors and offences against the rules of Christianity which he hath been guilty of.
" I. Of writing & sending me two Letters which were highly abusive not only to me, but to the Chh. and others, & were inde- cent and unchristian, for the particulars of which, I refer to the letters, one dated December 9th, 1809, and the other Feb. 19, 1810.
"2. Of incommoding Mrs. Chamberlain in her own seat in time of public worship, & by rude & indecent behaviour in the house of God in time of Public worship at sundry times ; insulting & disturbing Judge Brigham's family & others in time of public worship by his behaviour in the hind seat, after having been repeatedly requested to desist; in disturbing the wife of Mr. David Fay at the communion in February last ; of making unnecessary disturbance in time of public worship by scraping or thumping his shoes or boots by the side of his pew before he entered in, so as to cause the speaker to stop at two different
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times in the month of February last ; Of making a disturbance in time of Public worship by stepping out of his pew into the broad alley, and with his tools making a place for his inkstand on the 19th of June last.
" 3. His uniformly attending public worship at a very late hour.
" For these offences, which are all aggravated by the consid- eration of the office he once sustained in the church, every lover of the rules of Christianity & friend of Chh. discipline has rea- son to be offended and grieved."
(Signed ) DANIEL CHAMBERLAIN.
All the charges were sustained in the trial by a vote of about twenty to one or two. There was no doubt what- ever about their correctness, and there seems to have been no more than one, besides the redoubtable Robinson him- self, - who was present at the meetings and voted on his own case, - who cared to oppose the verdict. All regard for the man had long since vanished, and not even the deep respect which at that time prevailed for the office he had formerly held availed much in his behalf. It is related on the authority of a venerable man, not long since de- ceased, who as a boy was an interested witness of these proceedings, that at a town-meeting held in one of these years the question of keeping the organ in church came up; whereupon one citizen remarked that he had noticed that Mr. Robinson, who hated the organ, never came to meeting till the first singing was over, and always left before the last hymn, -and he was of opinion that an instrument that had the power of casting out devils was worth keeping. The town seemed to agree with him, at least so far as to retain the instrument. During his trial before the church, which lasted some time, Robinson was twice requested by the church to refrain from partaking of the sacrament. He paid no attention to the request, and was at length peremptorily refused the bread and wine;
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whereupon, nothing daunted, he brought his own, and had a meal by himself. At last, after a weary time and many church meetings, he made a "sort of oral confession," which was not satisfactory to the church, but which, being revised at a later meeting, was accepted. On the IIth of December, 1814, his letter of confession and a letter of admonition were read in public, and the church took a long breath. Some time after this he removed to Leba- non, Conn., and the trouble seemed to be well over. But it was only a treacherous lull in the storm. In 1818 the church received a letter from the church in Lebanon, de- clining to accept him on the strength of a letter from this church, on account of his conduct while with them. Then came a desperate effort to get rid of the business; the Lebanon church insisting that the Westborough church must discipline him, and the Westborough church throw- ing back the responsibility on the other. Finally the mat- ter was taken before the Consociation of Windham County, Conn., and then before the Harmony Conference in this county ; and it was decided that Westborough must dis- cipline him. Then, with the taste of the old experience still in their mouths, the church began to prepare for the unpleasant task, when, to their infinite relief, they received a letter from Lebanon saying that the respondent, prob- ably remembering too well his former experience here, had made confession and been received to membership, adding that the matter was satisfactory to Lebanon if it was to Westborough. The church in Westborough voted, with some emphasis, that it was satisfactory; and the clerk added, with pious exultation : "Thus happily was this try- ing case terminated; and to the Great Head of the Church belongs the praise ! "
Meantime the church had been rising to a new position
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
and a new life under Mr. Rockwood's earnest efforts. After the departure of his tormentor to Connecticut the pastor, feeling somewhat as the Master did when Judas had gone out, called the church together and instituted special prayers and efforts, which were not fruitless in the coming years. It was in 1816 also that another modern feature of church life was initiated by a few young ladies. They had endeavored to interest the church in the matter of a Sunday-school, but were met with general and violent op- position. Only the pastor and two of the brethren - one of whom was Breck Parkman-gave them any aid or com- fort. But they were not disheartened, and the next year they determined to make a beginning. Mr. Parkman offered them a room in his house, and at the first appoint- ment they found seventy pupils waiting; and the enter- prise was assured, in spite of the unreasoning opposition of the conservative church. It was long before the church approved, - longer before it assumed the school as a part of its own work; but the institution had come to stay, and its adoption was only a question of time.
In 1827 there was a little discussion in the church on the new question of temperance in drink, and in March it voted to use no more ardent spirits at funerals or at ordi- nary social visits, and that it would use its influence to prevent the immoderate use of liquor. That was radical action for those days. In 1832 the town followed suit, in- dulging itself in the mild self-denial of refusing any longer to furnish rum to its paupers, except on a physician's pre- scription. Three years later it took a step so radical for that day as to need explanation, by refusing to grant licen- ses to sell liquor at retail or in public-houses.
An event that was for a time of great importance was the building of the Boston and Worcester turnpike in 1810.
THE BEGINNING OF MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. 219
It took its course, like all the turnpikes of that period, in a bee-line toward its point of destination, passing over all the hills, and scorning all obstacles. Its coming made an era,-the era of the stage-coach and the wayside tavern. Scores of coaches used to rattle by in a single day along these great through lines, and the bustle and excitement at the baiting-places was great. It brought the outside world, with all its news and budgets, past the little towns that had lived without it for so long. The earliest tavern in Westborough was at the corner of the turnpike and what is now Lyman Street. In 1827 Captain Wesson built another, not far from the site of the old meeting- house; and for a time it looked as if the old Chauncy was to be revived, under the less euphonious name of " Wes- sonville." Not long afterward, Nathan A. Fisher built a thread-factory near by, and Fisher & Lothrop opened a "store." Heretofore business had been carried on on a very small scale. The earliest village store was started by Breck Parkman, the eleventh child of the old minister, who was born on the 27th of January, 1749. When he arrived at man's estate he built a small structure be- tween the meeting-house and the parsonage, living in one part of it and conducting a small business in the other. This building is still in existence, on South Street, and is occupied by Patrick Chronican.
Mr. Parkman afterward built a new house for himself, and converted the whole of the old one into a store, which was at a later time removed a little way up Summer Street. This new house, afterward enlarged and raised to three stories, is now the rear building of D. W. Forbes's sleigh-factory. Subsequently Breck Parkman and Judge Brigham built the store on the south side of Main Street (the old building now in the rear of S. M. Griggs & Co.'s
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
block), and removed the business there. After their sons became of age they dissolved partnership, and Mr. Park- man built the old store formerly on the site of Post- office Block, where he and his sons transacted business for many years. A hotel was built at the centre in the early part of the century, on the site of the present Westborough Hotel, and was enlarged in 1824. It was first known as "Gregory's Inn," and was kept by Capt. Daniel Gregory, whose daughter became the wife of Lowell Mason. It was afterward kept for a long time by Dexter Brigham.
It was quite early in the history of business growth that " Piccadilly," on the Hopkinton road, came into promi- nence as a manufacturing point, - owing to the existence of a good water power, -and for a time vied with the centre of the town in importance. But at the time of the staging excitement both Piccadilly and the centre seemed likely to become secondary to Wessonville. So long, indeed, as the meeting-house was at the centre, it would remain the gathering place for one day in the week, and retain a dignity that other sections lacked. But during the six working days it could not successfully compete with its rival farther north. It was off the stage route, and its quiet was unbroken. It only heard, far away, the rattle of busy life. There were both trade and manufacture at the new centre, but even the gossips had no more use for the old store, since all the news had gone away. For a good while this change seemed likely to be permanent; but at last, in 1835, a strange iron horse went roaring past between the old meeting-house and the parsonage, the rattle of wheels and the crack of the whip died out along the turnpike, and the glory of Wessonville faded. The centre regained its natural advantages, with all the
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BEGINNING OF THE TOWN'S SECULAR LIFE.
added opportunities which the railroad brought, and the modern era had fairly begun at last.
Meantime, in 1825, the town ceased to act as an eccle- siastical parish, and the First Congregational Society was organized on the 14th of March. E. M. Phillips was the first clerk. The first recorded business had relation to the heating of the meeting-house, which thus far had been guiltless of stoves. Steps were taken toward putting them in soon after this; but the evident necessity of a new meeting-house at an early day put a stop to the proceed- ings, and the good people still went cold in church, except for the feeble help obtained from foot-stoves.
CHAPTER XVI.
1830-1860.
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. - THE DIFFUSION OF INTELLIGENCE.
T 'HE coming of the railroad, and the consequent in- crease of business and manufacture, marks the be- ginning of a new era; and the period of which we have tried to tell the story is rapidly drawing to a close. There will be no more pioneer life. The quiet seclusion of the little town is broken up. The dominant influence of the old church is no longer possible, and already there are the beginnings of schism. No more will the old-time parson rule his flock from his pulpit as from a throne: his gown and wig are gone; his veto power has per- ished; the sceptre has fallen from his hands; and he is become as other men. The old fireplaces that con- sumed so royally their forty cords of wood a year are vanishing, and will soon be only a thing to tell of. The bad spelling is going out of the records, and the flavor of the ancient days is departing. The old meeting-house will soon be only "The Old Arcade ;" bell and clock and tower will disappear; the very porches will be car- ried off, to be transformed into dwellings, and the habits of a hundred years will suffer change. Of the modern town another will speak; our concern has only been with that vanishing period which, unless its memories are speedily embalmed in some permanent form, will be- come an unknown era.
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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT.
But there are still a few things to be noted before we close the record. The railroad was built as far as West- borough in 1834. The next July it was formally opened, and two fussy little engines, of English manufacture, or at any rate in the English style, drew the train of twelve cars, filled with the directors and stockholders, from Bos- ton to Worcester. The trip took three hours. The cars were small coaches of English pattern, with doors at the sides, and of light draught. One of the original con- ductors of the road, Thomas Tucker, was still living in Westborough but a few years ago.
The location of the railroad seriously interfered with the usefulness of the old meeting-house. The society demanded $1,000 damages for the land taken and other disadvantages, but were unable to get so much. Other influences were also at work which hastened its disuse. Differences of theological opinion had for some time been assuming threatening proportions, and before the railroad came, another ecclesiastical society had been or- ganized. As early as 1831 there had been some action taken toward the building of a new house; but the di- vided state of feeling rendered it impossible. In March, 1832, a vote was passed to sell the old meeting-house, and a committee, of which Otis Brigham was chairman, was appointed to carry the vote into effect. A year later there were some carefully prepared proposals from Charles Parkman for the building of a house at his ex- pense, to be afterward conveyed to the society on speci- fied conditions, one of which was that the choice of a minister should always be determined by the vote of pews, each pew having one vote. This, in the dispute whether the Unitarians should be allowed a share in the supply of the pulpit, was too significant, and the meet-
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EARLY HISTORY OF WESTBOROUGH.
ing adjourned without action. The following year, when the division of the society had been consummated, the First Society voted to accept $15 a year from the town for the use of the meeting-house for town meetings, to pay part of the expense of ringing the bell, taking care of the clock, etc. This year stoves were actually put into the old house, which continued to be the place of worship of the First Society till 1837, when it was sold to Luther Chamberlain.
The business of the place felt the coming of the rail- road and its facilities at once, though it did not increase with the rapidity of later times. In 1833 John A. Fayer- weather opened a store in the Elijah Burnap house, and a year later started a stove and tin shop on the site of the present Unitarian church. In 1836 he removed his variety store to the old Parkman building, on the north side of Main Street, and continued to do business there, with various changes in the firm, until 1858. It greatly astonished the good people of that day when Mr. Fayer- weather, in the first store he opened, undertook to sell meal. It was an unheard-of thing that any one should think of buying meal anywhere but at the mill. Every- body said it would be a failure ; but it proved a great convenience, and soon superseded the old way.
The boot and shoe business was begun here in 1828 by J. B. Kimball & Co., whose first shop was on the land of Major Fayerweather, near the Whitney place. About 1836 they built the brick shop at the corner of Main and Milk streets, where their business remained till 1859. In 1844 the lower part of this shop was converted into a store, and occupied by W. L. G. Hunt, afterward by Fay & Brigham, Warner & Brigham, Oulton & Peters, Homan & Peters, Homan & Child, etc. In 1840 Daniel F. Newton
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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT.
began to manufacture boots and shoes in the factory on Cross Street, employing, mostly out of the shop, some three to four hundred workmen, and continuing the busi- ness there for twenty years. In 1858 George B. Brigham, who had been superintendent in Newton's factory for eight years, began to manufacture for himself, - as he still continues to do, though with far different methods and facilities from those in vogue when he began. His first factory was on Milk Street.
Sleighs had been manufactured here for a long time, in a small way; but the first large building for the pur- pose dates from 1857, and business was begun in it by the firm of Burnap, Forbes & Co., who made about five hundred sleighs a year.
As early as 1836 some movement was made toward the providing of a town-hall. The old meeting-house was still in use; but as the First Society was anxious to sell it, some substitute had to be provided. There was some delay before the enterprise could be undertaken, but in 1839 it was voted to put up a building of one story, with a basement of brick. The work proceeded at once, though it was not until 1842 that the hall was ready for occupancy. A bell and a clock were needed, and Otis Brigham, Abijah Stone, and Gardner Cloyes were appointed a committee to provide them. The old meeting-house clock was to be bought, "if it can be had for money," and a bell must not cost over $300. The old clock had been sold in 1837, with the old meeting- house, to Luther Chamberlain, and the old bell hung in the belfry of the new Baptist church near by. The old clock was finally repurchased, and a new bell procured, which still does duty melodiously.
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